cucas87

I had lots of fun last night. And Scott, thank you, thank you for the rib. Sharing it was an act of heroism.

Nice to meet you Beau, thanks for the recommendations. I'm sure you'll see me there again, most likely following up on those suggestions.

I finally made it to Restaurant Eve for lunch -- and I got to meet Booklovingbabe. Don't I feel silly for waiting so long to go to Eve. If anyone ever wants company for lunch, let me know. I'm in walking distance. Had the Lickety Split lunch: an Eve's Temptation (granny smith puree and Smirnoff's green apple vodka) and the bacon, egg and cheese salad. And a piece of roasted garlic sourdough bread. Perfect for the spring day. But as I was leaving, someone to my left received his pork belly and it looked incredible. I'll have to try it. And the Orange Julius, which apparently involves thyme simple syrup.

I may be at the bar at Eve for lunch tomorrow as well.

I miss Ruppert's. A number of years ago I went to Spain and had a wonderful trip, but was stunned by how heavy the food was. I was convinced that the only vegetables eaten in Spain are olives and potatoes. I came back in early April and my traveling companion and I immediately went to Ruppert's. I still remember the incredible fig salad I ate that night.

I'd also like to go back and enjoy more of the wonderful food.

Yes, I will be there and thirsty. Thanks!

That's ironic. (Alanis Morisette, take note). I'll finally be downtown on a Friday afternoon and there's a happy hour in Alexandria!

This is a tough week for me at work, so if everyone meets at 7, I may be a little late, but it's not a big deal.

Count me in. And I could pick people up at Ballston if that helps.

If you're counting, I'd love to go to Cafe Atlantico for dim sum at some point as well.

I second this recommendation. Had a terrific meal there months ago and have wanted to go back ever since.

I had hoped to make it to HEOB but will not be able to attend. Hope to see you at the next dim sum event.

Thank you MDT, Hillvalley, my lively tablemates and Corduroy. I had a lovely time. Last night was my first time at Corduroy, so I had to balance my mixed emotions of delight at the special menu and disappointment that I could not taste all of the dishes I've read so much about. I appreciated the staggered service, but for whatever reason, our table seemed to receive inconsistent service. The night was still wonderful and I'm so happy to have gone, but it's a reminder that even a polished restaurant has its human moments. I loved the wine pairings (especially the Riesling paired with the shrimp tartare) and I loved the progression of flavors in both the wines and food over the course of the evening. I was amazed by how much I enjoyed the pork cheek and venison and duck rillettes, and while I liked the concept of the squash tart, I ended up preferring the tart to the squash. It was terrific to meet Rissa and hear from the Chef and speak with other of the restaurant's staff. Those moments added so much to the experience and made the night even more fun. I hope our appreciation came through. In any event, be forewarned, I will be going back to Corduroy and plan to work my way through the menu. As soon as I can eat again.

I'd love to come to Fortune on the 18th. I hope to come this Sunday to HEOB.

This is the same advice I would give -- but I will definitely locate and check out Deli City since I've not been there. My brother is a musician and often plays at a spot on the lower east side, conveniently located a few blocks from Katz's. It's like a bonanaza, I get to go to NYC, hear my brother play *and* eat at Katz's. There's often an intense negotiation at the table over how much food to order, but there's almost always a pastrami sandwich and a reuben. Of course, if my father comes along, we also have to get a regular corned beef sandwich because he considers reubens to be frou-frou. Come to think of it, I'll be at Katz's on March 11th. Can't wait.

If you follow the link (in my post above and right here), you'll see that sadly, I'm telling it like it is.

I have seen this show. The word "horrible" comes to mind. I love wine, but don't know too much about it and thought that maybe this show would help. Nope. I don't care for Karen MacNeil's on-air persona or the fact that she dumbs things down and provides "memory cues" about wines. Ugh. Is there no happy medium between telling me that a wine has a particular bouquet (a la the old Steve Martin routines) and telling me to think of rose as a "young Barbara Streisand"? I'm not sure if the wine or Barbara should be more insulted. In one show, she provided the following info: 1. Rosé Color: Red Taste: Dry, Robust, Spicy, Berries Geography: France, Spain, USA & Others Memory Cue: Young Barbara Streisand 2. Blanc De Blancs Color: White Grape: Chardonnay Taste: Light and Crisp Memory Cue: Renee Zellweger 3. Blanc De Noirs Color: Red Grape: Pinot Noir Taste: Full and Round Memory Cue: Catherine Zeta Jones In case you think I may have made this up, here is a link to that epsiode. wineshow. And I'm happy to see the information about the new wine show. I'll give it a try.

Jumping on the cast iron bandwagon. I also love cast iron and use it for most everything. Scallops are incredible when made in these pans. I also love making scrambled eggs, salmon, asparagus, steaks and burgers, and I'll stop now. I have 4 frying pans of varying sizes, all purchased at garage sales and cleaned up at home and I also have what I suspect could be the oldest cast iron dutch oven still in existence, the kind of thing you could take on a camping trip (assuming, of course, you go on camping trips. I'm just guessing here). I use all of the cleaning methods mentioned by everyone here and, in desperation, when things really stick, I've put salt in the pan and used both paper towels and scrunched up aluminum foil to get it clean. I reseason the pans after that, though. I also try to season/reseason some of the pans when I use them the first few times, and it seems to work out fine.

I can't believe I ate the whole thing. What a great night, thank you to Escoffier, Grover, Goldenticket and Hillvalley. And it was really nice to put faces and real names with screen names. The variety of flavors in tonight's meal was just incredible. I loved the food and all of the condiments that came with the dishes, especially the greens and carrots and radish and (a surprise for me), the kimchee. Wow. I still can't believe how great this was. We started with a noodle dish (I think it was bean thread noodles, with vegetables and meat, all gently seasoned with sesame oil. Um, even though I asked about 6 times what this is called, I'm not sure I recall correctly --food coma, sorry-- maybe it's called jop chae), then we progressed to a seafood pancake served with a spicy sauce (Escoffier called this Korean pizza, I seem to recall it's called something like pajeon), then on to the famous barbeque (ribeye, tenderloin (I think) and pork) which we rolled in lettuce leaves, a really tasty dish with rice, egg, vegetables in a casserole type pot, then on to monkfish with vegetables, and then noodles cooked in the broth from the bbq beef, somewhere along the lines we had spicy squid (fabulous), and seafood soup, and cold noodles and fruit for dessert. I think I may have left something out. I must admit I ate everything. And then some. Thanks again to Grover and Escoffier. A great night, and a great restaurant. I will definitely go back.

As another single person here, I like the idea of a singles table and think it might make it easier or more welcoming for single people to come to some of the more formal events. But, I also very much like the diversity represented here, and I don't want to miss out on getting to know the married/attached people and their plus ones.

A mid-morning cup of coffee (Intelligentsia Black Cat blend) and a (homemade)pumpkin muffin.

From MSNBC's David Shuster's blog -- written from Bistro Bis -- ShusteratBitroBis, it sounds like an interesting evening at Bistro Bis.

I'm a little late to the party, but thought I'd report on a really nice dinner at Dino last night. I owed a good friend a birthday dinner and told her to pick where she wanted to go. She picked Dino because it's been on her list of places to try, so off we went. For two small people, we ordered and ate more than either of us thought possible. Perhaps we should consider competitive eating. Anyway, we started with the calamari (wonderful and believe everyone who says the small portion is enough to share), the prosciutto (phenomenal) and we tried the sardine (I'm not a sardine person and would not have ordered it on my own, but it was not too bad for a sardine). I had a taste-sized glass of the Costanti Brunello (holy cow, I would have had more but I knew I had to come home and finish a project). We could have stopped there and been completely happy, but it was a birthday celebration so we ordered the butternut squash pasta (phenomenal) and the Tagliata steak, which was good, but not great. I can't point to anything wrong with the dish, it was flavorful and nicely cooked but it didn't "wow." That said, the dish is worth ordering for the arugula salad that comes with it. At that point, sane people would have stopped eating. But a birthday calls for dessert and we pressed on. And my friend, the queen of desserts, had looked at the dessert menu before we ordered our mains, so there was no backing out. We shared the semifreddo with the sour cherry sauce, which I really liked, and the nutella panini, good but way, way too much after all of our other courses (not that we didn't eat it). My real disappointment was that I had wanted and planned to order the cheese for dessert, but by then I'd eaten so much that I couldn't do it. When we left, we thought we'd let Dean know how nice a time we'd had, but we didn't see him, think he was upstairs, so Dean, we had a great time and will be back.

I can't make it on the 19th but hope to come next time.